Looking for an Obscure Playstation 1 Parallel Port Accessory

Hey Guys,

I know back in 1997 ~ 1998 I had a device that I could plug into the back of my original Playstation and it would let me load roms from a CD-r. I want to say this was a NES emulator, but it might have been a gameboy, but I'm pretty sure it was NES.

I've searched the boards and google for a few hours and can't find anything, not a name, nothing.

I know you can just download a NES and Gameboy emulator for the Playstation, but I really would like to get the information on the hardware that could do this.

If you have any information or a link please let me know!

Thanks
Disjaukifa

 

Arn't you talking about a Game Booster? Total crap, but... Some people's crap is another persons treasure! (^_^);

If I recall, EMS also makes a device which lets you use your PS1 to flash Gameboy ROM's to cartridges as well. Probably works much better than an emulator.

 

I remember that Game Booster device. There were similar ones that plugged into a memory card socket too.

I thought they required an actual GB cart though. I didn't think you could load ROMs off disc?

 

Does the Emulator-Z work using CD-ROM only? I can't remember. Anyhow, all these devices were built using an open-source emulator which wasn't really that good to begin with. So unless your flashing to a card for play on real hardware, it probably won't be so good.

 

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Emulator-Z!!! i think that was it!!! Yeah I don't remember if it worked well or not to be honest with you, but I just been racking my brain for what it was called for days.

I had some obscure hardware my Playstation back in the day and then got rid of most of it except the console which I really regret.

I wonder if I can find someone that is selling this . . . I highly doubt it though :-(

-Disjaukifa

 

You could probably find it if you look long enough and it should be cheap on account of it being garbage. Novelty, collecting, things like that might be enough to pick it up but to actually use it would be a big disappointment.

 

Yeah this is more for my own collection and a bit of nostalgia as well. I don't really care if it works well or not, its the fact that i had one and remember using it.

The problem is items such as these are never sold on ebay because of the legality of said item.

-Disjaukifa

 

Emulator-Z were horrible. They were supposed to contain emulators for SMS/GG, GB and PCE (PCE was why I bought it) but I could only get it to work with monochrome GB games. There was no sound and the games must have run at 15 fps... I can't remember what I ended up doing with it, I either sold it here, gave it away or threw it out because I can't find it now :/ I believe I bought it from Lik-Sang for $7 or so.

Edit: check this thread: http://assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20666

 

I had a relabelled action replay that went into the parallel slot which used to let me boot up copied games..it hated 80min cdrs(audio would stutter)

 

Thanks for the link and I went to the link inside the thread however they didn't have the Emulator-Z.

I've been using a CD-R with a patched Japanese game to English and it plays just fine . . .

-Disjaukifa

 

@Calpis: Did the box and manual say it supported the other formats explicitly? Hrm... It loads ROM images from CD-R right? I forget but I seem to recall one of those emulators playing with no sound, but having a really anoying looping music that goes on... and on.. and on.. (>_<);

 

Yup, and other people have reportedly gotten non-GB games to load. I didn't try too hard once I played the GB emulator, I knew it was trash at that moment.

 

A friend had a much bigger MPG thing you'd plug in to the back of the PSX and you could play imports, but I'm not sure about copies.

He bought it just to play a Card Captor Sakura game he ordered from Japan. Back in the day, we considered that really awesome.

 

I have a Game Enhancer 9 and a Gold Finger, both of which allows you to play imports and back-ups with ease.

However I do find the Game Enhancer 9 to work better when playing backups, which doesn't really make sense since it should be passive after the boot process . . .

Also I want to clarify that I've been playing Akumajō Dracula X: Gekka no Yasōkyoku (Castlevania Symphony of the Night Japanese version) with a translation patch, however I own Akumajō Dracula X: Gekka no Yasōkyoku.

I won't play a game burnt onto a CD-R unless its a translation and I own the original version as well, but thats just a personal preference.

-Disjaukifa

 

Here you go! Emulator Z made by EMS. For some reason some of their products are on this site and not the EMS one, I got this one though an e-mail with them.

http://mynewdata.tripod.com/ps/Emulator_Z/Emulator_Z.htm

 

On PS1, Copies and Imports are the same issue. Imports have a 4 letter code that doesn't match the 4 letter code expected by the CDROM controller. Unless it gets the correct code, it will not unlock the drive to the rest of the system. I think the codes are SCEA, SCEI, and SCEE. But I may not have that exactly right.

Devices that let you play imports are all the same. The allow you to perform a swap trick. This is the only way without a modchip (or other hardware mod) to boot an import or a copy. The import disc is just as illegitimate to your system as a burned CD-R game as both lack the appropriate coding. The swap trick just facilitates two things, stopping the motor and restarting it, and loading a new executable once the discs are swapped. They are always combined with something to defeat the lid sensor on the system so it is unaware of the disc changing. One problem with this is the Table of Contents is of the original disc and not the one you swapped. On games that use Redbook audio tracks this is a disaster. The audio will only work correctly if you swapped from the original disc to a backup.

Another thing to note is modchips apparently existed that would monitor for the SCEx code sequence and patch only the 4th character with the correct region for the console it was installed. This allowed the booting of Import games but not CD-Rs/Backups/Bootlegs. Classic modchips instead just constantly send the appropriate code, even if the disc isn't inserted or spinning. This clocks a register the CPU can read which is how anti-mod protection works as the appropriate number of codes to receive in one reset is 3. But more likely when the game first loads it would keep track of the current number of correct codes received at that point and then update this whenever it detects a lid open/close event and you'll easily catch modchips as they are constantly sending the code.

Stealth mods watch events differently to send the correct code only the correct amount of times at the correct times.

Anyway, if you have interest in playing imports a modchip is the way to go as the table of contents will be correct where as with any plug-in device or swapping disc the ToC will always be incorrect. This is where people start talking about games needing a "big ToC" or things like that as generally the games that work with this method are a single data track so you want the longest single data track original game you can find to swap with.

And you can forgo Stealth mods as using Action Replay codes or patching in the case of backups will defeat all those protections. It's possible some games might not have existing codes or patching but I think most do.

 

I've got one and I'm even willing to part with it, but we should take that communication to PM if you're still interested.



By way of disclaimer, I'm tied up tonight and tomorrow with Super Bowl stuff, so please accept my apology in advance if I don't respond to communication requests right away.

 

You are correct about the 3 regions. I currently own 9 Playstations, 2 Blue Debuggers, 1 Net Yaroze, 1 PSOne, 1 Japanese SCPH-7000, 4 PSX of various types.

I had originally tried the Parallel Accessory to play imports and translations, but I found it to be clunky and honestly annoying. I finally found a stealth chip and though I had some troubles getting it installed, I have it installed on my SCPH-9000 and it works great, that particular Playstation could use a new motor and spindle but other than that it works perfectly.

I found when when using the Parallel Accessory, the sound would always be off and the laser assembly in the Playstation seemed to be working on overtime.

To anyone reading this, if you want to play translations or imports, mod-chip is the way to go 100% :thumbsup:

-Disjaukifa

 

PM Sent!

-Disjaukifa

 

That may really be true. When you put a disc in besides the ToC being read it also calibrates to read the disc surface. When you swap discs, it is not readjusted for the new disc. Modchips are definitely better. But the swap trick does have its uses for some people.